Dear Kid,

We we went to the Cyclones hockey game last night. The crowd was surprisingly light for a playoff game.

I went to a fight the other night, and a hockey game broke out. Rodney Dangerfield

Two minutes into the game, the Reading team (never did quite figure out their team name) had scored twice and we had spent 17 hours in the penalty box.

The Beanpot is the most important college hockey event in the universe.

I had quite a nice discussion with a psychology major from the University of Cincinnati who was at the game with her parents. She’s taking a sign language class so we chatted (and signed) a bit. She’s teaching her mom sign via Skype which I think is really cool for both of them. More importantly, she was kind enough to watch my purse when we went for food so a big Thank You to her.

Billy Smith was the first goaltender in the NHL to be credited with scoring a goal (Nov. 28, 1979).

On a huge check, one of the boards broke. Play stopped while they replaced it (during which the Cyclones continued to not score. But at least they didn’t get any penalties.)

The center red line is “broken” because back in the olden days when television was a teeny tiny black and white screen and everything was run by the network (hard to image a world without cable and 900 inch TVs) it was difficult to distinguish the red line from the blue lines.

During intermission, Pi and I got to high five Twister, the Cyclone mascot. Somebody (who ought to remember who bough his pizza before he makes snarky comments) said, “Cool story–you can tell it at parties to break the ice.” Funny, kid. Very funny. (<– note the sarcasm font)

Wednesday, Sept. 23, 1992, Manon Rheaume made sports history by being the first woman to play in one of the four major sports leagues in the US. (She was the goaltender for the Tampa Bay Lighting in a pre-season game.)

Deep in the second, our boys finally found the back of the net and the crowd went wild. Seriously, wild. Wish there was a way to bottle that kind of energy and sell it to college kids–no more problem with 8am classes!

Then we tied it up –and in the last few seconds they scored and the game ended 3:2, them.

Love, Mom